Перед работой мне нечего было есть, кроме банана и груши.

Because the preposition перед normally takes the instrumental case when it means before or in front of.

• работа = work
• перед работой = before work

So this is not the accusative or genitive form; it is the singular instrumental of работа.

Мне is the dative form of я, and Russian often uses the dative in impersonal constructions like this.

Literally, the structure is something like:

• мне нечего было есть
• to me there was nothing to eat

This is a very common Russian way to express I had nothing to eat.

Нечего means there is nothing to... or nothing for someone to... and it is typically followed by an infinitive.

For example:

• мне нечего есть = I have nothing to eat
• ему нечего сказать = he has nothing to say
• нам нечего ждать = we have nothing to wait for / no reason to wait

So нечего is not just the ordinary word for nothing. It is a special form used with infinitives.

This is a very common question.

• нечего is used with an infinitive:
  мне нечего есть = I have nothing to eat
• ничего is the usual pronoun meaning nothing:
  я ничего не ел = I ate nothing

So in this sentence, нечего is needed because the speaker is saying there was nothing to eat, not simply nothing in a general sense.

Because the sentence is in the past.

In the present tense, Russian usually omits the verb to be:

• мне нечего есть = I have nothing to eat

But in the past tense, Russian adds было:

• мне нечего было есть = I had nothing to eat

The form было is neuter singular, which is normal in this kind of impersonal construction.

Yes, есть can mean two different things:

1. to eat
2. there is / are

Here it means to eat. You can tell from the structure:

• нечего было есть = there was nothing to eat

That is a fixed and very common pattern. Context makes the meaning clear.

Кроме means except for, besides, or apart from.

So:

• кроме банана и груши = except for a banana and a pear

It tells you that the banana and the pear were the only things available to eat.

Because кроме requires the genitive case.

So:

• банан → банана
• груша → груши

Both are singular here, meaning a banana and a pear, not plural bananas and pears.

A useful detail: груши can look confusing because it is also the nominative plural form, but after кроме, it must be understood as genitive singular.

Because after кроме, Russian uses the genitive, not the nominative.

So the correct forms are:

• кроме банана
• кроме груши
• кроме банана и груши

Using банан and груша here would be ungrammatical.

It simply means and. Both nouns stay in the genitive because they are both governed by кроме:

• кроме банана и груши = except for a banana and a pear

You can think of кроме as applying to the whole list.

Yes. There is no grammatical subject like я in the sentence. Russian often uses impersonal constructions for meanings that English expresses with I have... or I had....

So instead of saying something literally like I had no food, Russian says:

• мне нечего было есть
• literally: to me there was nothing to eat

This is a very natural Russian pattern.

Yes, Russian word order is flexible.

This sentence starts with Перед работой to set the time frame first:

• Перед работой мне нечего было есть, кроме банана и груши.

Other orders are possible, for example:

• Мне перед работой нечего было есть, кроме банана и груши.
• Мне нечего было есть перед работой, кроме банана и груши.

These are still understandable, but the original order sounds very natural because it introduces the time context right away.

Yes. A learner might also hear something like:

• Перед работой у меня не было ничего поесть, кроме банана и груши.

This also means roughly the same thing. But the original sentence with мне нечего было есть is very idiomatic and elegant.

A rough comparison:

• мне нечего было есть = I had nothing to eat
• у меня не было ничего поесть = I didn’t have anything to eat

Both are natural, but the structure is different.